Record warmth at the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet

The coldest place in Greenland, and often the entire Northern Hemisphere, is commonly the Summit Station. Located at the top of the Greenland Ice Sheet, 10,551 feet (3216 meters) above sea level, and 415 miles (670 km) north of the Arctic Circle, Summit rarely sees temperatures that rise above the freezing mark. In the 12-year span 2000 - 2011, Summit temperatures rose above freezing only four times, according to weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera. But remarkably, over the past week, temperatures at Summit have eclipsed the freezing mark on five days, including four days in a row from July 11 - 14. There are actually three weather stations located at the location--Summit, Summit-US, and Summit AWS. The highest reliable temperature measured at any of the three stations is now the 3.6°C (38.5°F) measured on Monday, July 16, 2012 at Summit-US. A 4.4°C reading at Summit in May, 2010 is bogus, as can be seen by looking at the adjacent station. Similarly, a 3.3°C reading from June 2004 is also bad. Records at Summit began in 1987.

Video 1. A 20-ton tractor attempting to repair a bridge washed out by the raging Watson River on July 11, 2012 in Kangerlussauaq, Greenland gets washed downstream. The driver escaped unharmed. Image taken from an article, Warm air over the ice sheet provides great drama in Greenland, at the Danish Meteorological Institute's web site.

Record heat leads to major flooding in GreenlandThe record heat has triggered significant melting of Greenland's Ice Sheet. According to the Arctic Sea Ice Blog, on July 11, glacier melt water from the Russell Glacier flooded the Watson River, smashing two bridges connecting the north and south of Kangerlussuaq (Sønder Strømfjord), a small settlement in southwestern Greenland. The flow rate of 3.5 million liters/sec was almost double the previous record flow rate. The latest forecast for Summit calls for cooler conditions over the coming week, with no more above-freezing temperatures at Summit.

Another huge iceberg calves off of Greenland's Petermann GlacierA massive ice island two times the size of Manhattan and half as thick as the Empire State Building calved off of Greenland's Petermann Glacier on Monday, July 16, 2012. According to Andreas Muenchow, associate professor of physical ocean science and engineering at the University of Delaware's College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment in his Icy Seas blog, the break-off point has been visible for at least 8 years in satellite imagery, and has been propagating at 1 km/year towards Nares Strait. The same glacier calved an iceberg twice as big back on August 4, 2010--the largest iceberg observed in the Arctic since 1962. The freshwater stored in that ice island could have kept the Delaware or Hudson rivers flowing for more than two years, or kept all U.S. public tap water flowing for 120 days. “While the size is not as spectacular as it was in 2010, the fact that it follows so closely to the 2010 event brings the glacier’s terminus to a location where it has not been for at least 150 years,” Muenchow said in a university press release. “Northwest Greenland and northeast Canada are warming more than five times faster than the rest of the world, but the observed warming is not proof that the diminishing ice shelf is caused by this, because air temperatures have little effect on this glacier; ocean temperatures do, and our ocean temperature time series are only five to eight years long — too short to establish a robust warming signal.”

Figure 1. The calving of a massive 46 square-mile iceberg two times the size of Manhattan from Greenland's Petermann Glacier on July 14 - 18, 2012, as seen using MODIS satellite imagery. Image credit: NASA.

Figure 2. Look familiar? Two years ago, a 100 square-mile ice island broke off the Petermann Glacier. It was the largest iceberg in the Arctic since 1962. Image taken by NASA's Aqua satellite on August 21, 2010. Image credit: NASA. I've constructed a 7-frame satellite animation available here that shows the calving and break-up of the Petermann Glacier ice island. The animation begins on August 5, 2010, and ends on September 21, with images spaced about 8 days apart. The images were taken by NASA's Aqua and Terra satellites.

Right on the head Captain, great post. Income taxes are nothing compared to the sales, gas, property, and assorted other taxes the less wealthy pay daily. Also excellent point on them counting Pell Grants as assistance - do they complain about the tax "assistance" corporations get.

1977-1985= US Coast Guard1985-1989= Collage GI Bill 1989-2008= Merrill Lynch2008-------= Merrill Lynch bought by Bank of AmericaLate 2011 = BOA sent my job and and many others in LSD and DRC to Indonesia2012------- Unemployment and still looking for a job.

Worked all my life. Your comment is ABSURBED!

....+1,000...how many those that "dont pay any taxes" are unemployed,Children and elderly,what a BS line!

Ignorant little narcissists all over the place, demanding their entitlements, benefits, whatever they feel entitled to. Nice work, NEA members too dumb or lazy to teach maths, science and English at school; much better to have focused for 30+ years on "self-esteem" rather than personal achievement. Thanks

You stated that half of all Americans pay no income tax, misrepresenting this fact as if this is due to a handout culture... when this half is almost entirely due to senior citizens, the truly poor and unemployed, and children... and given a mature, demographically healthy first world country, you would expect about half of all Americans to fall into those categories, ideally with fewer poor. Trying to squeeze the poor is a truly futile endeavor; you'll waste more money trying to make them pay out their $50 or whatever their ultimate tax burden is than it is worth, and in the meantime inflict further pain on them. I mean, we could also tax senior citizens on their social security and add yet more bureaucracy to the process, but for what purpose? What possible social function would that serve? As for children, if you'd like, we can try to impose a 5% income tax or whatever on lemonade stand sales; have fun explaining to the soccer moms why Breanna is being audited to find out if she owes $2 or $3 for her proto-capitalist endeavors.

Of course, the real kicker is that in truth, in almost every state, the poor and middle class have a much more onerous tax burden than the rich. It isn't even close.

Now, for the forty percent of Americans who receive some form of public assistance. Let's go on friendly ground for you; the Heritage Foundation. They, too, ignore climate science and are ideologically right wing, and they're the source of the original claim. Would it surprise you to note that even they admit that most of these unproductive, handout-seeking welfare leeches... are in fact people on Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, Social Security, food stamps, and other such literally lifesaving programs? That's not creating a culture of dependency; that's ensuring that seniors and the poor can eat and live. The hilarious part is that the Heritage Foundation wants to count Pell Grants - the grants that have made it at all possible for the poor to go to school - as something that induces dependency instead of something that breaks the cycle of poverty... but sure, whatever floats your boat.

It's bad that is for sure. I don't think a tropical system would make it up the Mississippi that far before it would "Don" out. It could take two or three of them just to moisten up the environment enough so that the next system could make it a little farther north before the dry air kills it.

You're probably correct, unfortunately. I had a Don like experience yesterday, I-55 was our "coast".

I learn alot from Dr. Masters Blog, but I check in every day for the comments, that are up to date, all the time.And yes, I learn important news topics from the comments too. If they cut the comments, this blog won't be worth checking every day since it will be dead between postings. Hope that isn't true.

I'm afraid you may be correct ILwthr. Unless a big pattern change occurs. How about a big trop depression recurving thru the midwest.

It's bad that is for sure. I don't think a tropical system would make it up the Mississippi that far before it would "Don" out. It could take two or three of them just to moisten up the environment enough so that the next system could make it a little farther north before the dry air kills it.

Astronaut Joe Acaba photographed these Southern Lights from the International Space Station on Saturday, July 14th. He was 400 km above Earth's surface, immersed in the fringes of the auroras themselves.

"It was absolutely incredible," says Acaba. "I was working out and in between sets I noticed that we were heading south during a night pass. So I decided my workout could be postponed for a few minutes and I turned out all of the lights in Node 3. Within a couple of minutes, I could not believe what I was seeing. I enjoyed the show for a few minutes [then alerted my crewmates to look].. Even Gennady, with all of his time on orbit, was amazed. Of course I took some obligatory pictures, but then I just sat in the dark, in the peace and quiet of this incredible man made, orbiting laboratory and just looked out the window in awe. What a truly magnificent planet we live on and solar system we live in."

Edit to add a little good news on Denver:14.40 (7.40) Reports that the three-month-old-baby wounded in the attack has been released from hospital.

If you think a few psychos at a movie are bad, wait until normal people are stressed out and making life/death decisions involving thier survival or yours.

I think there are about 20% of the population that are stable under stress, if that. Wait until stressed out religious people start making life or death decision based on what thier belief in God told them was right.

(I am not picking on religion or being an Atheist. I chose religion because it is one of the major moral frameworks, pick your own framework and substitute it if you please. The point was that any framework is warped under stress, not that religion is bad.... probably would have been easier to change the post at this point.)

Quoting Neapolitan:Some models are hinting at possible all-time record high temperatures across the Mississippi Valley next week. Stay tuned for details...

In the meantime, I saw someone earlier commenting that a model is showing a swirl off the Florida coast--in two weeks. I think I'll hold off on boarding up just yet... ;-)

Our local NWS was saying the same thing with highs anywhere from 100-110 degrees from KC to Indy and that was just the EURO. MEX was even higher. Heat Indexes could be over 120 in spots.

Today could be my first day below 90 in a streak of 24 days where I have seen 90 plus, with 7 of those days being over 100, and several more falling just shy of a hundred, and its only July.

Unfortunately I still believe we are far from seeing the worst of this drought, it could be one of the worst of all time. I believe by the time September rolls around we could be looking at D-3 and D-4 conditions stretching from Denver to Detroit ranging from the Canadian border down into the heart of Texas. Southeast may be the only spot in the US that escapes the worst of this disaster.

You made an over reaching generalization about a group of people based on exceptions. The poor are not leaches. They don't all have flat screen tv's, air conditioning, etc. I would suggest reading "Amazing Grace" by Jonathan Kozol to get a good look at what poor neighborhoods are actually like.

For example here in Florida the average welfare payment is $73.41 per month. That's not flat screen tv money any way you slice it. 40% not paying any income taxes is accurate, but only because they aren't making enough money after deductions to need to pay, yet they still pay payroll and sales taxes, and in many cases, state and local taxes as well. You are misrepresenting data.

Quoting weathermanwannabe:I have two girls (ages 11 and 20) and while one is in college we never took our eyes off of them, they have not been allowed to watch/listen any inappropriate television or other media, and my oldest just finished her 2nd year at Yale. I try to stay on topic on here but will say this, the decline in American society over the last 20 years is correlated to the media blitz of "reality" TV which essentially glorifies disfunctional people on TV every day. No wonder our young generation, and a few older folks, have so little respect for people these days. It's all about turning it around for our kids and setting better examples for them; if you have children, turn off the television or keep it on PBS and other educational/history channels.

Socrates: "Anyone who has contemplated history has understood that the fate of empires depends upon the education of their youth"

great post..Reality t.v. is disgusting. 30 seconds of it and i,m nauseated...Somebody said this is the " me era " and it is a competition for who has the most inflated ego..

Almost half the people in this country don't pay any income tax and over 40% get some form of public assistance. Even the poverty stricken have flat screen tv's, air-conditioning a cell phone, car and an x-box. Too few pulling the cart for too many is an accurate statement. BTW I'm off to work now as somebody has to do it. Yet I'm absurd. Elaborate please.

Government Assistance, Thank YOU!

1977-1985= US Coast Guard1985-1989= Collage GI Bill 1989-2008= Merrill Lynch2008-------= Merrill Lynch bought by Bank of AmericaLate 2011 = BOA sent my job and and many others in LSD and DRC to Indonesia2012------- Unemployment and still looking for a job.

Quit spouting neo-con talking points. You are misrepresenting what is actually happening by stating exceptions to the norm. From my perspective as a sociologist, you really need to understand how social power and inequality work before going on about carts and pulling nonsense.

Almost half the people in this country don't pay any income tax and over 40% get some form of public assistance. Even the poverty stricken have flat screen tv's, air-conditioning a cell phone, car and an x-box. Too few pulling the cart for too many is an accurate statement. BTW I'm off to work now as somebody has to do it. Yet I'm absurd. Elaborate please.

Quit spouting neo-con talking points. You are misrepresenting what is actually happening by stating exceptions to the norm. From my perspective as a sociologist, you really need to understand how social power and inequality work before going on about carts and pulling nonsense.

Yup. I started playing guitar again this last decade, after being in the music business as a player and artist manager for 10 years back in the day, and Zep was a big influence. I am in the process of putting a band together again (in my old age) and just recently added "Ship of Fools" by Plant to the song list. The song is most appropriate for the times but I have a bigger problem at the moment; I can't find a singer who can pull it off like Plant.

Good luck on that as Plant is one of the greatest vocalists ever..I love playing guitar , and Led Zepplin has been my favorite band since they first came out. Severe map for today...

Quoting hydrus:I wanted to repost this. I am sure there are others here that feel the same way including meself..:) Quoting weathermanwannabe:

Yes my old friend, we will know soon enough but I will stick it out to the end....This has been like family to me over the last 6 years starting with Dr. M and tons of other folks over the years (some whom no longer blog on here) who were more interested in teaching than arguing............. Oh Well....... :)

Indeed,

Change is a constant in linear time and within the Matterium,

Tomorrow will be a new Chance to make something WUnderful.

"If you cannot help, at least harm not the ones doing the chore"

Closing timeEvery new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

does this have to do with comments ending on the 25th, or whatever patrap was talking about?are they really ending the comments section?

I wanted to repost this. I am sure there are others here that feel the same way including meself..:) Quoting weathermanwannabe:

Quoting weathermanwannabe: Yes my old friend, we will know soon enough but I will stick it out to the end....This has been like family to me over the last 6 years starting with Dr. M and tons of other folks over the years (some whom no longer blog on here) who were more interested in teaching than arguing............. Oh Well....... :)

Almost half the people in this country don't pay any income tax and over 40% get some form of public assistance. Even the poverty stricken have flat screen tv's, air-conditioning a cell phone, car and an x-box. Too few pulling the cart for too many is an accurate statement. BTW I'm off to work now as somebody has to do it. Yet I'm absurd. Elaborate please.

Yup. I started playing guitar again this last decade, after being in the music business as a player and artist manager for 10 years back in the day, and Zep was a big influence. I am in the process of putting a band together again (in my old age) and just recently added "Ship of Fools" by Plant to the song list. The song is most appropriate for the times but I have a bigger problem at the moment; I can't find a singer who can pull it off like Plant.